Omar al-Qattaa / AFP
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) is accused of having distributed flour containing opiates.
Gaza – serious charges. In social networks publications, several people claim to have found opiates in flour bags distributed by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) to the inhabitants of the Palestinian enclave. Allegations taken over on June 27 by the Gazaouies authorities.
The Gaza government media office, controlled by Hamas, alert, in a statement released via Telegram, on “The discovery of oxycodone tablets in flour bags from” Israeli-American aid centers “”referring to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), supported by Israel and the United States. He also indicates that he has collected “Four testimonies of citizens who found these tablets in bags of flour”.
The authorities fear that these drugs could have “Be deliberately ground or dissolved in the flour itself”. The press release also holds Israel “Completely responsible for this odious crime aimed at spreading drug addiction and destroying the Palestinian social fabric from the interior”.
Oxycodone is a very powerful amazing analgesic whose effects, comparable to those of morphine, can quickly make addicted. They notably played an important role in the opioid crisis in the United States.
“This is what I discovered”
The Gaza Government Declaration follows several photos broadcast on social networks on Thursday, June 26, revealing white pills with registration «G80» or «O80». “This is what I discovered by sieving the flour”writes the author of one of these publications.
On Facebook, a man presenting himself as a doctor from Gaza also alerts to the presence of Oxycodone. A pharmacist, named Omar Hamad, also resumes information on X, where his publication has more than 2 million views.
Among the people who relate the images, some say that the presence of opioids is the result of contraband actions, during the looting of humanitarian trucks.
For the time being, these statements have not been verified by any other source. Contacted by Franceinfo, UNRWA, the United Nations Agency for Palestinian refugees, says that it “ cannot confirm or deny it ” These reports. For its part, the organization doctors of the world explains that the phenomenon is « plausible » But that she was not a witness.
With 20 minutes, Maryse Lapeyre-Master, head of CEIP-Addictovigilance in Toulouse, specializing in clinical pharmacology, specifies that despite the images “We cannot confirm that it is oxycodone”.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) denies these accusations. “The flour we distribute is commercially conditioned and is neither produced, nor handled by GHF staff (…), no box of flour open before distribution can be distributed”ensures the organization on X.
The methods used by the GHF are regularly criticized by the UN and the other humanitarian organizations in Gaza. Several hundred Palestinian civilians have been killed by Israeli strikes on the sidelines of the chaotic distributions of this foundation.
